NCAA President Mark Emmert Says "Aggressive" Changes Needed Across Division I

Large-scale changes are needed across the NCAA's highest division, says NCAA President Mark Emmert.

In order to confront the challenges facing Division I collegiate athletics, Emmert has outlined and scheduled a retreat in Indianapolis August 9, 10, and 11, inviting select presidents of various member institutions across a wide spectrum of Division I schools.  

Emmert cited the need for the retreat as a result of the juxtaposition between the amateur status of student athletes and the rapid commercialization of major college athletics.

“The integrity of collegiate athletics is seriously challenged today by rapidly growing pressures coming from many directions," said Emmet.  "We have reached a point where incremental change is not sufficient to meet these challenges.”

While recruiting violations and illicit exchange of money has always been an issue, over the course of the last year or so major infractions have become much more common, with USC, Ohio State, Georgia Tech and LSU receiving sanctions and probationary measures for violations the NCAA considered to be "major."  But Emmert doesn't want to pin the need for the retreat on these high-profile cases.  In a Q&A released on NCAA website regarding the retreat, Emmert explains, "As the commercial support of athletics collides with the intercollegiate model of sports, we get these kinds of cases as an outcome—so they’re symptoms, not a cause."

With the retreat still multiple weeks away, one can only speculate the changes that could ensue to amateur college athletics as we know it.  While not implicitly stating the possibility of some sort of pension system for athletes, Emmert did state that one of the biggest challenges obstructing a large-scale overhaul is the financial inequities between Division I institutions.  

“The huge financial differences across Division I make it very hard to create ‘one-size-fits-all rules,” Emmert said.  

Could this mean that (at least on a small scale) that a pay-for-players system could potentially be put into place?  It's unwise to read too far into the lines, but the fact Emmert brought up finances in the NCAA's press release could very well indicate that, for better or worse, the student athlete could very well be on the way to becoming the semi-pro student athlete.

Whether or not Emmert's definition of "substantial" change reaches such a drastic level, it is very true that the definition of amateur in college athletics is in need of an overhaul.  One could debate for hours the pros and cons behind the concept of paying college athletes.  That discussion has it's time and place, and it's not here.  

Whether Emmert wants to categorize the recent blatant ignorance of NCAA rules as a cause or an effect, violations are still happening and they're happening en masse.  Usually when rules get abused to such an extent, something is wrong.  Whether it be minor policy tweaks or a massive overhaul, something needs to be changed.